01-20-2011, 03:37 PM
Quote:Even when deeply hooked fish are released with a line trimmed hook, 50% will die.
I think you need to do some research before you go posting stuff like this around.
There has been many studies done that show the mortality rate far lower than 50%. Fact is fish left in the water and the line trimmed have more like a 90% survival rate.
Most of the size restriction have nothing or little to do with the purpose to catch bigger fish. They’re in place for biological reason. Since Strawberry was mentioned in this thread I will start there. The main reason Strawberry has a slot limit is because of CHUBS. In studies that were done the fish in the slot limit showed a higher consumption of smaller chubs. By having the slot limit the fish are allow to consume the largest amout of chubs possible. It was shown that once fish reach a larger size they eat larger and fewer chubs. It is the same reason Scofield now has a size limit. Other lakes have them for the same reason. It not only applies to trout waters.
There are a few lakes that I fish outside of Utah that only have bass and rainbows. The bass are there to eat other fish like chubs so that they don’t compete with the resources needed to grow large trout AND IT WORKS.
Now it may be true that there is a higher mortality rate when it comes to bait fishermen but bait fishermen are more likely to take their catch home anyway if allowed so you could get rid of the slot limit but then you have more fish being consumed.
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